The palms won’t be there much longer. The city has fired all their educated arborists. Those who are left trim them to that odd pineapple shape while the fronds are still green and alive. A fusarium-type wilt then infects the palm and it slowly dies. At least 3 have died since the last trimming – that’s what killed the dead palms around Justin Herman Plaza.

“…I’d support privatizing the park management and maintenance, as we’ve done at Mission Creek Park (in Mission Bay). It’s so much nicer than Lafayette Park, which I lived next to for several years.”
I’ve always been very struck by how well-maintained the parks in Mission Bay are compared with the regular city parks, and I’m sure the contracting out has a lot to do with it. But what happens if, as looks likely, Redevelopment gets phased out?

Let’s talk budget cuts. Parks & Rec has had their budget slashed for the past five years. Gardeners and teachers have been marked as extraneous, so have been laid off or mandated reduced hours and/or expanded work times/areas.
Palm trees were installed because they are marketed as low maintenance, when, like all plants, they need upkeep. Especially in their non-native habitat, a foggy city, palms need regular fertilizing, special grow lights and routine pruning and root control.
Palms really are “high rises for rats” which hollow out the center and create multi-rat-family burrows. From a 2000 Real Estate Brokers Association article. “Roof rats (the most common rat in SF) are excellent leapers. They can jump vertically 36″, horizontally 48″, and can bound eight feet from a tree to a house. … These creatures have become more prevalent in our area in the past 15 years.”
Although inter-species breeding is usually ineffective, in the SF Bay Area Norway rats now breed with Roof or Wharf rats. Guess where they love to live…palm trees. Fronds hold ratty weight better than flowering, fruit and needle tree branches do and because there are no bird nests for angry rat killing birds to defend.

Yeah, you don’t need grow lights to grow things outdoors. That doesn’t even make sense. Those palm trees have been planted in SF since the Victorian era, before they even invented grow lights. Plus, there, like, aren’t any grow lights to be seen anywhere, because it doesn’t make sense. Those palms are from the Canary Islands, not the tropics, and they are very adaptable to salty, windy conditions. They grow anywhere the temperature never drops below 20 degrees, which is far lower than the coldest temperature recorded in SF history.
Generally, those palms are lower maintenance than street trees that need branch trimmings, leaf cleanup, etc., and they are drought tolerant to boot.